Notre Dame football notebook: Golic Jr. takes center stage

SOUTH BEND - Yes, he listens/watches Mike & Mike In The Morning every day, even occasionally texts his dad while he’s on the air with a suggestion for the popular ESPN morning show.

“I want to make sure he’s not making a fool of himself,” Notre Dame senior center Mike Golic Jr., said with a big smile, talking about his high-profile father, Mike Golic Sr.

Saturday night, the younger Golic’s profile takes a big bump up when 48 games into his collegiate career, he makes his first collegiate start for the Irish (6-3), against Maryland (2-7) at FedExField in Landover, Md.

Fellow senior Braxston Cave, one of Golic’s best friends and the starting center since the beginning of the coach Brian Kelly Era, was lost for the season, it was announced Tuesday, with a foot injury that will require surgery.

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The Penn High product does retain a fifth-year option, however, for 2012.

“I don’t have the technical information for you other than to tell you that they’ve got to go in there and repair a ligament,” Kelly said of Cave’s impending surgery. “We feel terrible for Braxston, and he’s given us everything over the past two years, but he will be back, and that’s the good part about it.”

Cave suffered the injury in the first half of Notre Dame’s 24-17 rally Saturday night at Wake Forest, and Golic came in for his most extensive playing stretch of his career and shined.

“At the end of the day, we’re all working day in and day out,” Golic said. “And all the practice we’re doing and the reps we take, you don’t forget how to play football.

“I think that’s the biggest thing in getting thrown into the fire. I didn’t really have time to think about anything. I just had to get in and go and make sure the guys and the coaches knew they could count on me.”

It’s been a long climb to get to that point.

Golic committed to Notre Dame so early in the recruiting process - mid-February of his junior year - that Connecticut was the only other school to get a meaningful recruiting pitch in to the West Hartford, Conn., product. UConn’s coach at the time, incidentally, was Randy Edsall, now at Maryland.

Cave committed two weeks later, projected to play the same position. By the time the class was completed the following February, it was loaded with star power - Michael Floyd, Trevor Robinson, Kyle Rudolph, Dayne Crist, Darius Fleming, to name a few - and branded the No. 2 recruiting class in the country by CBS Sports Network recruiting analyst Tom Lemming, among others.

The intriguing dynamic in the class, though, was how they all stuck together and with then-coach Charlie Weis when the Irish endured a 3-9 meltdown in 2007 in the weeks leading up to signing day.

Their resilience and bond served Golic when he battled through a numbers game for playing time. Heading into this season, he had played roughly 35 snaps on offense in three years, or roughly half the snaps he’s likely to get Saturday night.

In the interim, Golic oozed the humility of a walk-on and had a work ethic to match. There was never a sense of entitlement just because his father and uncle (Bob Golic) had been standouts at ND. Instead it was all about a dream he kept prodding.

“It’s been a process,” Golic said of his time at ND, “and everything really hasn’t gone according to plan, as I kind of envisioned coming in. But it’s been a process of me getting a little bit bigger and getting acclimated to the speed and everything about the college game, and just sort of waiting for my opportunity.”

“Obviously, it took a lot longer than I planned, but I have my own little support system.”

That includes his roommates, Crist and Cave, and his family, including brother Jake, a reserve tight end on the team.

Father Mike Sr. will be in the stadium, per usual, to watch, and this time it’s his turn to text suggestions.

“My dad, my mom, my bother, my sister have always been huge for me,” he said. “They’re people I can count on no matter what.”

And their mantra has been very simple: Believe in yourself.

“I’ll just try to relax,” Golic said of his approach to Saturday night, “and remember at the end of the day, when you step on the field, there’s everything surrounding it, but it’s just a football game. I’ve been playing football my whole life. And it’s what I live to do.

“I’ll just go out there and try to remember the wonderful opportunity I’ve got.”

Personnel matters

- Junior wide receiver Theo Riddick, ND’s third-leading receiver (34 receptions, 362 yards, 3 TDs), will be held out of the Maryland game with a hamstring injury.